Harness stop motion



pr 24, 1951 w. G. JASMIN :n-'AL HARNESS STOP MOTION Filed. June l5, 1949 w um Patented Apr. 24, 1951 HARNESS STOP MOTION Wilfred G. Jasmin, Killingly, and Lester G. Herlihy, Putnam, Conn., assignors to Bachmann Uxbridge Worsted Corporation,

Uxbridge,

Mass., a corporation of Delaware Application June 15, 1949, Serial No. 99,142

4 Claims.

This invention relates to a harness stop motion for stopping the travel of a warp of yarns or the like upon the breaking of any one of the harness straps or wires supporting a plurality of harnesses through which said warp extends.

A simple loom, for example, employs two or more harness frames through each of which a part of the warp ends are threaded. The harness frames are alternately raised and lowered by means of straps or wires, hereinafter referred to as wires, which interconnect the harness frames respectively with the head of the loom. When a harness wire breaks all vof the ends threaded through the harness frame supported by that wire will be in lowered position until the break is repaired and if the travel of the warp is not stopped immediately the cloth being woven will of course be defective since it is dependent upon the harness frames being alternately raised and lowered to permit insertion of the weft or filling threads between the different warps as they are alternately raised and lowered.

The harness wires are of substantial size and Weight compared with filaments, threads o1' yarns and consequently stop motion devices adapted to detect when a filament, thread or yarn breaks and to stop its travel are ineiective for use as a harness stop motion. Heretofore various types of harness stop motions have been tried including; a direct contact type wherein a broken wire end drops onto a metal sheet fastened to the floor beneath a loom and forming part of an electric circuit and thus makes direct contact with the sheet to stop the travel of the warp. Such devices are objectionable because of the re hazard they create due to the considerable amount of fly which accumulates beneath a loom; a type wherein a string extends under the harness wires and is connected to a drop wire or switch, and is unsatisfactory due to frequent breakage of the string, particularly by loom fixers working beneath the loom; and a type, complicated by moving parts, employing a plurality of notched members moving in opposite directions and adapted to pinch between them a broken end and thus exert enough pull on the broken end to actuate a member in contact with said end. Itis an object of this invention to overcome the diiliculties of prior art devices and to provide a simple and practical stop motion for harness wires.

Another object of the invention is to provide a stop motion device which will be rugged enough for use in connection with harness wires and yet sufficiently delicately balanced to be sensitive to the breaking of a single wire, and effective when this occurs to close a switch to terminate the work operation.

Other objects of the invention will be in part obvious or in part pointed out hereinafter.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combinations of elements, arrangements of parts, and in the several steps and relation and order of each of said steps to one or more of the others thereof, all as will be pointed out in the following description, and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the following claims.

The invention will best be understood if the following description is read in connection with the drawings, in which,

Figure 1 is a front elevational view of a portion of a loom showing a harness frame and a harness wire extending from the bottom of the frame for a distance beneath the loom through a reach parallel to the floor on which the frame is supported, and indicating a stop motion positioned beneath the said reach of said harness wire;

Figure 2 is a top plan View of an embodiment of the invention;

Figure 3 is a front elevational view of the embodiment of the invention shown in Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of Figure 3; and

Figure 5 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of Figure 3, looking in the direction of the arrows.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated herein Figure 1 shows a portion of a loom frame indicated generally by the numeral I0, in which one or more harness frames I2 are mounted for movement alternately up and down by means of the harness wires I4 and I6 extending over pulleys I8 and 2D respectively to the head of the loom (not shown), and extending through branches 22a and 22h, uniting to form 22, from the bottom of the harness frame down toward the oor on which the loom is supported, and around pulley 23, and then through a reach substantially parallel with the said floor between pulley 23 and pulley 25 from which it passes upwardly to the head of the loom.

The stop motion disclosed herein may desirably be located directly on the licor beneath the reach of the harness wires between pulleys 23 and 25, and is indicated generally in Figure l by the numeral 27. l

In Figures 2 and 3 a cross bar 42 is shown adjustably mounted Von the brackets 44 and 45 which may be mounted on the floor. Said brackets are provided with the laterally extending feet 45 and 47 respectively by means of which they may be attached to a supporting surface, and each of said brackets is provided with a number of holes h, preferably disposed in a vertical line. The cross bar 42 is supported on said Vbrackets by means of bolts 48 and 50 extending through said cross bar 42 and through similar holes h in said brackets, and the height of the cross bar depends upon the height of the holes h used for mounting the bar. On bar 42 a switch, such for example as a known micro-switch assembly 54, is supported in xed position.

The micro-switch per se forms no part of this invention and will therefore not be described in detail herein. As is known to those skilled in the art it comprises a box-like housing containing contacts which may be suitably connected in an electric circuit with loom stopping means,

by conductors not shown. A spring pressed plunger 56 extends upwardly through the housing, said plunger when depressed serving to actuate means for bridging the said contacts within the housing but being normally urged upwardly and away from circuit closing position by said spring means contained Within said housing and not shown. On the front of the micro-switch housing 54 a bracket member 58 is secured as by the screws s and on said bracket an arm 66 is pivotally mounted adjacent one end on pivot 62. Arm 66 extends over the top of said plunger 56 by which it is urged upwardly. When said arm 6U is rotated in a counter-clockwise direction it depresses plunger 56 thereby closing the circuit through said micro-switch.

A rod 64, of much greater length than said switch actuating arm 60 extends over and parallel with said arm 60, and is superimposed directly upon said arm 60, and it is connected to arm 60 at a point remote from said pivot 62 as by the clamp 66 and set screw 68. Thus arm 66 is a lever of the third order, fulcrumed at 62, with plunger 56 acting upwardly against it through a short arm extending from pivot 62 to plunger 56, and the weight of rod 64 acting downwardly on it through the long arm extending from pivot 62 to clamp 66.

Rod 64 has an inclined portion 10 directly above the short portion 6I of arm 66 which extends beyond pivot 62 in a direction away from lsaid clamp 66, and said inclined portion bears directly on the portion 6l of arm 60. And on rod 64, between said inclined portion 'I0 and its adjacent end is a counterweight 12. The weight of counterweight 'I2 is exerted, through the inclined portion of the rod, on portion 6I of arm 6D, which thus, as between the weight transmitted through clamp 66 to arm 66, and the weight transmitted to portion 6| Vof arm 66, as sumes the character of a lever of the iirst order.

The rod 64, beyond its connection to -arm 66 in a direction away from pivot 62, is formed with a shoulder 64a, and an upturned portion 64b at its end thus providing a channel-like portion 65 between said shoulder 64a and the upturned end 64b, and this portion of rod `64 is extended under the harness wires and receives thereon an end of any of said wires which breaks. The shoulder 64a and the upturned end 64b prevent substantial lateral movement or displacement of a broken harness wire end. The rod 64 is prevented from displacement laterally, without interfering with its rotative movement in a vertical plane about pivot 62, by inserting the end 64b of the rod through the vertical slot 14 provided in the flange 44 projecting from bracket 44.

The portion of rod 64 extending beyond the connection to arm 60 at clamp 66 is in effect an extension of the long lever arm from pivot 62 to clamp 66, and when a broken wire end falls on portion 65 of rod 64 the additional weight thus added, acting through the extended lever arm is suiicent to counterbalance the counterweight l2, acting through a shorter lever arm (from pivot 62 to the counterweight) and the upward force of the plunger 56 acting through the short lever arm between it and pivot 62, causing the arm and rod assembly to rotate in a direction to depress plunger 56 and thus close the microswitch.

The harness stop motion disclosed herein is dependable in action and simple and durable, and does not easily get out of working order since it has only one moving assembly and no strings of the kind readily broken by workmen fixing the loom to which the device is attached.

It will thus be seen that there has been provided by this invention an apparatus in which the various objects hereinabove set forth together with many thoroughly practical advantages are successfully achieved. As various possible embodiments might be made of the mechanical features of the above invention and as the art herein described might be varied in various parts, all without departing from the scope of the invention, it is to be understood that all matter hereinbefore set forth or shown in the accompanying drawing is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What we claim is:

1. In a textile device for operating on a travelling warp of yarns and including a plurality of harness frames, a head, and harness Wires interconnecting said harnesses respectively and said head, means for stopping the device upon breaking of one of said harness wires said means comprising, a switch in a stop motion circuit including a plunger adapted when depressed to close said circuit, spring means urging said plunger to elevated open position, a bracket, and a switch operating arm extending over said plunger and pivotally supported adjacent one end in said bracket, and means for operating said switch including, a rod supported on said switch operating arm and connected to it adjacent its other end and having a portion extending under said harness wires, guide means for holding said rod against lateral movement while permitting movement in a vertical plane, and counter-balance means on said rod, on the portion thereof which is opposite the connection between the rod and said arm from the portion extending under said harness wires, the effect of said counter-balance means and said spring tending to rotate said switch operating arm to keep the switch open being overcome when a harness wire breaks and falls on said rod causing said switch closing arm to rotate on its pivot in a direction to depress said plunger thereby closing said switch.

2. In a textile device for operating on a travelling warp of yarns and including a plurality of' harness frames, a head, and harness wires interconnecting said harnesses respectively and said head, means for stopping the device upon breaking of one of said harness wires said means coin-` prising, a micro-switch in a stop .motion circuit, includinga pivoted actuating arm adapted to close said switch when rotated in one direction and to open said switch when rotated in the opposite direction, and a rod connected intermediate its ends to said arm, said rod being disposed parallel with and resting on said arm and having a counter-weight adjacent one end acting on said rod to maintain said arm in switch opening position, said rod being formed with two high points on the portion thereof which is on the opposite side of said connection from said counter-weight and extending under said harness wires, defining between them an intermediate portion adapted to receive thereon a broken harness wire end and retain it without substantial lateral movement of the wire end, said rod and pivoted arm comprising an assembly balanced so that the weight of a broken wire end resting on said rod causes said assembly to rotate said arm to switch closing position.

3. In a textile device for operating on a travelling warp of yarns and including a plurality of harness frames, a head, and harness wires interconnecting said harnesses respectively and said head, means for stopping the device upon breaking of one of said harness wires said means comprising, a micro-switch normally open and comprising a circuit controlling plunger, means normally urging said plunger to open position, a lever of the third order extending over said plunger and pivoted at one end adjacent said plunger and having a long arm riding on said plunger on one side of said pivot, and a short extension on the opposite side of said pivot, and a feeler rod connected intermediate its ends to said lever on the same side of said pivot as said plunger and at a distance from said lever pivot and superimposed upon said lever and extending beyond its ends respectively, said rod having a portion extending from said connection in a direction away from said pivot and positioned to receive thereon a broken wire end, and having a counter-weight on the portion extending from said connection over and beyond said pivot, said latter portion riding over the said short extension of said arm thus also giving to said lever the character of a lever of the rst order.

cl. A harness stop motion for stopping a travelling web when a harness wire breaks comprising, a switch in a stop motion circuit, a switch actuating arrn adapted to close said switch when rotated in one direction and adapted to open said switch when rotated in the opposite direction, a rod having a portion riding one end of said switch actuating arm and dividing the rod into a long lever arm portion extending under the said harness wires and a short lever arm portion, and means acting through the short lever arm portion tending to hold said arm portion in switch opening position, the weight of a broken harness end acting through said longer lever arm portion being sufficient to overcome the force tending to hold said actuating arm in open position and to rotate said arm in a direction to close said switch.

WILFRED G. JASMIN. LESTER G. HERLIHY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,962,509 Rocheleau June 12, 1934 2,091,718 Kaufmann Aug, 31, 1937 

